1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steel plate splicing facility which utilizes shear joining. More particularly, the invention relates to a steel plate splicing facility adapted to join steel plates which have undergone hot rolling and are to undergo pickling, or pickling and cold rolling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B, a steel plate (hereinafter may be referred to as a preceding material) 1 which is currently undergoing pickling, or pickling and cold rolling, and a steel plate (hereinafter may be referred to as a following material) 2 which is to next undergo pickling, or pickling and cold rolling are joined by, for example, flash butt processing or laser processing.
Specifically, the preceding material 1 passes through shears 10, a clamp apparatus 11, a joining apparatus 12 such as a laser welding machine or a flash butt joining machine, and a clamp apparatus 11; undergoes notch treatment and joint treatment; and is then sent to looper equipment and pickling equipment.
The preceding material 1 and the following material 2 are clamped by the corresponding clamp apparatus 11, and the following material 2 is laser-welded or flash butt-welded to the preceding material 1 by the joining apparatus 12.
Incidentally, a steel plate must be continuously conveyed at a predetermined speed, for the following reason. If travel of the steel plate stops while the steel plate is in a pickling bath, surface properties of the steel plate will be impaired by excessive pickling.
Since the conventional joining method involves long joining time, a large looper equipment (equipment for buffering a steel plate) must be installed, thereby raising a problem in that the size of the overall equipment becomes large.